How do I know the things I know?

[Akincana Krishna dasa]

Churches have collection baskets, if not tithes. Does your church not do those things?

One question: If his claim that he had spoken to god is valid to you, how can we discount with certainty people who claim to have talked to other beings, or who claim that god told them to kill some person because they were an incarnation of satan?

There are collection baskets, no tithes. The person I was mentioning was simple and austere. He never had a job and so was always really poor.

I'm not sure that you can discount with certainty if some people claim to speak to "other beings."

One important point is that knowledge is highly subject. What does it really mean to prove something to anyone besides make them feel like it's true?

Science is awesome, because there's a very set way of achieving knowledge. But the rules of modern science may not be the only absolute rules of achieving knowledge.

I follow a tradition. There are many saints that have taught the path I follow. My Guru (the person I feel convinced has seen God) followed the same path that mant saints have followed for a long long time. People I follow don't kill incarnations of satan or anything like that.